I was not very pleased with After Dark for the fact that it left me with a sense of emptiness. Like there was no real ending; nothing came to terms. However, I do applaud Murakami for keeping me guessing and wanting to read more. I managed to read the book in a cumulative of 5 hours. I just sat down and did not stop reading for anything.
I believe that the "night" plays a major role in this book. We are closely watching over Mari, Eri, Takahashi, Shirakawa and a few others with a scrutinizing eye. We are seeing what is going on with these people during these awkward hours. Looking at things that happen during night time that wouldn't normally occur during the day. We are observing lost souls and the issues that they deal with at night that they would not normally deal with when everyone else is awake and able to see them. Take Shirakami for example, during the daytime he seems like a normal business man with a family, yet at night this alter ego emerges and he turns into a monster [metaphorically] who beats up a young prostitute and takes all her belongings. Eri, whom to everyone seems like a normal beautiful girl who can have anything she wants, is actually unable to have a normal social life. She takes a lot of pills and really has no sense of herself. When we are first introduced to Eri in the novel, she is sleeping. To the outside world she looks peaceful and calm without a care in the world. Yet, when we see what is going on in the television set, it is nothing but. I think that whatever is occurring in the television set is actually what is going on in Eri's subconscious; like a dream/nightmare. All she wants to do is sleep and forget about all her problems. I believe the man with the mask is actually her inner demon. She can't really put a face on her troubles but they are there. In her dream she is trying to grasp a sense of reality and wishes that someone could hear her and that she can escape this "nightmare".
After Dark is a novel that makes you realize that not everything is what it seems. You also realize that even though two people who grow up in the same household, don't have to have similar personalities or actually really know each other on a deeper more emotional level. Everyone has an inner demon. Some people can go on with their lives being productive even if something is bothering them on a subconscious level, while others turn to less healthy habits and sometimes even resort to unreasonable and fearful actions.
